Lost in Forks
by Professor Image
Summary: They were just myths, right? So why was he in the middle of a vampire and werewolf war?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Twilight Franchise or any other franchise mentioned or used within this story. The Twilight Franchise is owned by Stephenie Meyer and Little Brown, MT Books. The only things that I own are original characters, themes, and plots. This story is written with only entertainment purposes in mind, and as such I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. Please do not sue me. Thank you.

* * *

Summary: They were just myths, right? So why was he in the middle of a vampire and werewolf war?

* * *

Enjoy:

* * *

Lost in Forks

A Twilight Fanfiction by

Professor Image

Chapter I:

"A Bigger Monster Comes to Town

Or

Taking a Bite out of a Sparkle"

* * *

XXX

* * *

Seattle, Washington. He had come a long way. His name was George, and he was a vampire. He had been brought into the fold by Riley and their unnamed creator, and was an underling of Raoul, one of Riley's lieutenants. Every Newborn was wild and bloodthirsty, and he was no exception. Disregarding the fact that he was a vampire, there really was nothing special about him. He took joy in the killing and drinking of blood just like every Newborn, and like every Newborn there was hardly anything on his mind except the taste of blood on his tongue and lips.

He was young, too. He had been created only a month prior, so he was barely coherent most of the time. He hardly even knew his own name. All blood still tasted the same to him, young, old, fat, skinny, male, female, and healthy and diseased, it didn't matter. There really was nothing special about him.

That's why she caught his eye. Raoul had sent a group of three out to hunt. George didn't know who his companions were for this trip, didn't care, really. The two that came with him, a male and a female, were older than him, and the thirst wasn't as strong for them as it was him. The female had just gone and tricked two strapping college jocks into following her into an alley, and then she had pounced. The male, well, he had fed on a family of four. George had gorged himself on several families and lone stragglers, but he always seemed to want _more_, and the girls were always his favorite.

She was stumbling down the street, obviously intoxicated with either drugs or alcohol, he didn't care. The fact was, she was vulnerable, and that set him off. He knew she must have caught the attention of someone, being a pretty young thing just waltzing down the street mindless of what others would do to her, he knew because he spotted three older, bigger human males following her. Perfect, he thought, enjoying the thought of the hunt all the more now that he would have to gorge himself on more than just the girl.

"I'll be back," he grumbled, shifting his ruby red eyes over to his companions. The female snorted derisively, obviously not the least bit amused by his actions.

"What? You still hungry? After all that you drank? Man, you're a fucking fat ass, George!" she insulted him. George resisted the familiar impulse to tear the female vampire's arm off and beat her with it; he was far too hungry to care.

"She's on drugs, I think," the male stated, much calmer and gentler. He was surprisingly coherent even for a few months old Newborn. George pulled his eyes away from the girl on the street below to look at the male. "She won't taste good."

"Don't care," George grumbled, his body coiling down to throw himself down to the street below, "Hungry." He didn't give them the time to stop him, of course, not that they would have. Riley had made it obvious that he didn't like them killing each other, threatening to send them to the sun. Nearly ten stories down he fell, but when he landed it was softer than a kitten's drop. He was silent as the grave as he stalked his prey, following the three big men since they were the most obvious targets and would give him the most blood.

They were down the street, two of them in the front, when he pounced on the one in the back. His hands covered the other man's mouth while he brought his teeth down on the man's throat and crunched through tissue, bone, and cartilage. Sweet, sweet blood, with a bitterness that reminded him that the man was drunk flooded into his mouth. He drank until the man was dry, then he dropped the idiot to the ground. He continued, easily catching the scents of his prey and following.

The other two were not quite as lucky. He actually managed to lose one of them, because as he pounced on the one to the right the other reacted, and he was forced to kick him across the street into a lamp pole to get him to shut up. Dead blood was not tasty, after all. So he took his fill of the one in his hands, regretting the loss of good blood but anticipating the next on his list of victims.

When he moved on from the now cold and dry corpse he found the girl in a nearby alley, cowering in the darkness as if it could hide and protect her. But to his ruby red eyes the alley was as bright as day. He stalked into the darkness, growling and leaking venom like a rabid dog. There was a strange scent in the air, though, unusual enough to catch his attention. It smelt…wrong, somehow, unnatural, like a disease or a synthetic drug. This up close he had to agree with his companions, she was probably high as a kite on acid or heroin. But it wasn't like that was going to stop him.

His determination and hunger lasted up until the point where he grasped her around the left bicep, when she looked up at him, smiling sinisterly. There was something wrong with her face, her skin crawling and rippling as if it was made from a thousand writhing worms. Then George found himself staring into the cold blue gaze of a handsome man around his own age.

"Well, aren't you an interesting one," the man commented appreciatively, a cold and merciless smile stretching his lips. Like a snake strike his hand lashed out and clamped down on George's shoulder, and no matter how hard the vampire tried to pull himself from the other man's grip he was held down like an impudent child.

"Bastard!" snarled George, throwing a fist. The man caught it, holding it within the grip of metallic gleaming talons connected to a mutilated hand.

"Obviously not human," said the man, his eyes flashing from blue to red as he flicked his eyes over the vampire's body. "So what are you, some kind of humanoid crystal?"

"As if I will tell you!" and George lunged, hoping that he could clamp his teeth down over the other man's throat and end this farce. That was when he felt the pain, and as he looked down he found that the man's other arm had transformed into a long and curved blade which he had lodged into the vampire's chest.

Calmly pulling the blade from George's body, the other man swept his blade arm down and sliced off the vampire's right arm. Then, impossibly, the man plunged his clawed hand into George's chest and removed his heart. George gasped, stepping away and grasping at his chest with his remaining arm. The man who so easily mutilated the vampire flicked his now blue gaze over the stone hard lump of flesh that was the George's heart before looking intently at George's still mobile body.

"Curiouser and curiouser," the man regarded the vampire with interest, before discarding the lump of flesh with contempt and stalking forwards with obvious intent.

George backed away, feeling a feeling that he had only known since Riley first talked about what the sun could do to them, to vampires. Despite his incredible powers, despite his awesome strength and outrageous speed, this man was easily picking him apart piece by piece.

The man's body shifted, his arms rippling like water and worms thrashing beneath his skin, bubbling out over his clothing and arms. It was disgusting, the way the man's muscles and tendons corded and writhed over his body, transforming into new shapes, colors and textures. As the man raised suddenly massive fists that reminded the vampire of giant hammers, his arms bulging with muscles, he commented idly, "I wonder what you taste like."

That was it, as far as George was concerned. He was done with this man; he didn't even care about his missing body parts. He was going to run, use his superior speed to get the hell out of dodge, regardless of his hunger and Riley's directives. He was just turning when the man was upon him, arms lashing out, smashing him into the ground and pummeling him over and over again, shattering his stone hard skin and crumbling his even denser muscles, tendons, and bones.

Finally the man stood up, leering down at George's broken body. His voice was amused as he commented, "Huh, you're still alive…" then he knelt down and shoved his hand into George's shattered skull, the man's flesh rippling. George was dimly aware of screaming as he felt something foreign writhing through his granite hard brains and into his crystalized blood and flesh. He felt himself drifting away, felt his strength waning in his broken body, followed by immense, unimaginable agony.

Then, there was darkness.

* * *

XXX

* * *

My name is Alex Mercer.

Actually, I'm really not. Yeah, the world as a whole saw me as Doctor Alexander John Mercer, even Dana Anne Mercer, the real Alex Mercer's sister saw me as her brother, but I wasn't, exactly. Sure, I had his face, even had some of his memories, but I wasn't _him_, not exactly.

I'm a virus in humanoid form, a disease that saw itself as a human being. Alex Mercer, the _real_ Alex Mercer created me, and the moment that his life was threatened, when Blackwatch decided to cut their losses and end all testing on his greatest work, Mercer released me, sacrificing millions just to kill his assassins out of spite.

I took his shape, took his memories, and took his life. I _became_ Alex Mercer. He was the first life that I had consumed.

Blackwatch called me Zeus. It's as good a name as any, I guess. Some might even say that that was my actual identity. I'm not Alex Mercer, so I had to be someone else, right?

I've come a long way from those first hours of stumbling through my powers, slowly learning my limitations and exceeding them with each life that I took. I've killed a lot of people since then, saved a lot, too. I've learned that I have no right to claim to be a human; humans can't take a tactical nuclear warhead's explosion to the face and get back up hardly any worse for wear.

I'm not exactly a hero, and this was obvious when you consider what the rest of humanity thinks of me, but I've always had the best intensions for the rest of the ungrateful human race. You just have to see all that I've sacrificed for the rest of the world to understand that.

Nukes sucked, plain and simple.

It's been about a year since Mercer released the Blacklight virus on Penn Station, New York, since I woke up in a Gentek Morgue, since I managed to clean up the last of the infected in New York. Ever since, I've been hunting.

New York wasn't the first time that Gentek went messing with viral weapons. Hope, Idaho was an obvious example. The human race seemed determined to kill each other, and Gentek profited from that self-destructive tendency.

I've been traveling, hunting, consuming and killing at any Gentek installation that I could find. I'm a little tired, not physically, but emotionally. It feels like I've been across nearly the whole damn planet. But it was worth it.

My name is Alex Mercer, and my work is almost done.

* * *

To Be Continued…

* * *

Author's Note:

Yeah, this came out of the left field. Even I was surprised by the idea behind this story. I believe that there's only been one Prototype/Twilight crossover on this site so far, so this is pretty original, I'd say.

Nothing else to say, really; I'm probably not going to put this under the Twilight Crossover category because I don't feel it is warranted. Yes, technically it IS a crossover, but since it involves more of the Twilight universe than the Prototype universe I felt that it would fit better in just the ordinary Twilight section. Everyone, even those not familiar with the Prototype games should treat Alex as an OC. I'll try to provide enough flashbacks and explanations in the story about Alex's past so no one is lost.

This will either probably be an Alex/Leah or Alex/Alice pairing, if I do pair Alex with anyone.

So, other than that, I want to ask everyone to review this story and tell me your individual thoughts. I'd like to hear any concerns anyone has on this story. Or, if anyone just wants to talk about this story or anything else really I'll listen and try to reply.

Ta.

Professor Image.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Twilight Franchise or any other franchise mentioned or used within this story. The Twilight Franchise is owned by Stephenie Meyer and Little Brown, MT Books. The only things that I own are original characters, themes, and plots. This story is written with only entertainment purposes in mind, and as such I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. Please do not sue me. Thank you.

* * *

Summary: They were just myths, right? So why was he in the middle of a vampire and werewolf war?

* * *

Enjoy:

* * *

Lost in Forks

A Twilight Fanfiction by

Professor Image

Chapter II:

"Adapt and Overcome

Or

How to Kill an Army"

* * *

XXX

* * *

So what was I doing in Seattle, Washington of all places?

Surprisingly enough, and please take note of all my sarcasm, I was _hunting_.

The news was having a field day, of course, but I had only caught wind of the chaos in Seattle when I got back to the states from demolishing a Gentek factory in Japan. While loitering in front of a storefront window in Los Angles I finally got to see for myself all the devastation in Seattle. The scenes of whole streets utterly destroyed, cars flung into builds and humans savagely torn apart was familiar too me; it screamed "Blacklight" to my ears. Several hundred thousand people screamed their agreement in the back of my mind. It was sad to say it, but I was more used to war, death and utter chaos than I was with peace.

So I rode stowaway on a plane making its way to Seattle, got off and immediately began hunting for any hint of Gentek interference.

Of course, to my utter vexation I found neither hide nor hair of the enemy. Not a hint of Infected, or any sign of government soldiers looking over the shoulders of the citizens for any hint of wrongdoing or disease. No quarantine whatsoever. Strange…I mused.

Most of Seattle was gripped with terror, that was evident, but even then there was still refuse pretending to be humans amongst them. After hours of searching I felt the hunger growing inside my cells. The need to consume was a necessity, you see, and going nearly a day without feeding that hunger impeded rational thought. I really should have eaten a cow while in Los Angles. But it was when I began my own hunt that I saw _it_.

My senses were greater than a human, even when I wasn't using any of my viral super powers I still had greater than 20:20 vision, and my sense of smell was so acute that I could smell what a person's diet was from just the sweat from their pores.

It was easy spotting it. I had picked up three stragglers, three older men that were seduced by the vulnerable, female body that I had transformed into. I had been playing up the drunken stupor, pretending to be weak so that I could lure them into a back alley to feed my hunger, when _it_ showed up.

Admittedly, there really wasn't much to say about it. Sure, it seemed to have a good set of muscles, but it was still skinny, and though it was very beautiful, a fact that all the females that I had consumed agreed upon, it wasn't really that striking visually. But the way it moved told me all I needed to know.

It was a predator.

It stalked us, sure of its own movements, of its own powers. I couldn't actually get a good look at it since I was playing the part of a vulnerable waif to attract my would-be sexual assaulters' attentions, but I knew when it caught one of them, and knew when it ended the man's life without any hint of regret or hesitation.

Then it caught up with us and attacked the other two men. I stayed behind to watch as the creature batted away one of the men into a light pole, the blow shattering the man's spine instantly, while the creature bit down on the other man's throat and drank his blood. I studied the creature as it fed, shifting between infrared, ultraviolet, and infected vision. My Infected and Ultraviolet Visions didn't tell me much, but my Infrared showed me that the creature was ice cold.

As the creature was finishing its…meal, for all that it could be, I decided to play the part of a good prey and ran into a nearby alley to wait for it. I knew it would follow, there was no mistaking the scent of anger, lust, and frustration that made up what other's would call _bloodlust_, and I was proven correct as it followed me into the alley, a confident smirk on its face.

I pretended to cower against the wall as the creature approached, growling and slobbering like a wild animal hunting its prey. I held onto my disguise up until the point where the creature grabbed my left arm, where I then looked it in the eyes as I let my form dissipate and morph into my preferred body; in seconds Alex Mercer's cold blue gaze was looking into murderous red eyes that shined with their confusion at my shifting body.

It didn't take long for me to finish the creature; I won't trouble you with the details. I spent a bit of time examining it with my Infected Vision; though I could tell that it wasn't an Infected, my vision allowed me to see the creature in a new light. Its features were sharp, hard as any stone, and shined dimly in the moonlight like a prism struck with the beam of a flashlight. It was vaguely humanoid to my Infected vision, but the creature obviously retained some semblance of sentience. It died all the same, and when I was ready I consumed it.

"Well, shit," I cursed.

The creature, and it was a vampire, was named George, of all things. Though it couldn't remember its human life because of the bloodlust of a Newborn impairing its memories, _I_ could. It was all in the blood.

That, of course, was troubling. Even its blood had been crystalized, its cells becoming rock hard shards. But even then I could still break them down. I was used to crystalizing my own biomass with the carbon that I absorbed to form shields and my armor and then breaking them down when they weren't needed, and this vampire's biology wasn't too different from that, so it was actually pretty easy to break it down. The only issue being that the DNA strands in the vampire's venom that crystalized the human cells took some working around to work with my own biology.

In the end, I got a new trick. Taking the example of a vampire's physiology in mind, I could crystalize all my biomass the same way a vampire could, giving me the same strength as my normal armor and shields. I practiced this ability quietly for a few minutes in that alley, even letting venom pool in my mouth, before inspiration struck me. With a thought I let my armor form over my skin, before using the principle that I had gained from the consumption of George the vampire to further increase the strength and hardness of the carapace.

"Huh, neat…" I rolled my neck, testing the surprising elasticity of the hardened muscles and skin. I'd need to play around with the new abilities that I had gained before I could feel confident in trusting their usefulness.

Letting the transformation go, my armor receded back into the rest of my biomass, before I threw myself onto the roof of the building to my right. There, I lazed about on the building's shingles while I briefly reviewed all the information that I had stolen from my vampire victim.

"So…George was with two more vampires earlier tonight, who are probably still waiting," I glanced to the night sky that was just beginning to lighten with the pre-dawn hours, and realized something. "And judging from the time, I imagine that they'll be heading back, soon. Huh, a house full of vampires. Scary thought, that," I stood back up and gave a hapless shrug, "Might as well do my civic duty and clean out the nest." Of course how was the question?

"Might as well go with the classic," I commented, letting the transformation take over me. In seconds where I had stood there was a male vampire of average height in my place, the familiar features of George there to throw off attention. I immersed myself in the memories of George to let his personality guide me, jumping off the roof and dashing across the city to search for my "allies".

It didn't take a long time to find them, actually, with a vampire's senses that I had stolen along with the rest of George's powers, and my own unique senses working in overtime, it was actually pretty easy to meet up with them. The moment I stood before them I realized the error of my actions, as the male and female pair each held their hands in front of their noses.

"Yuck, George, man, you reek!" the male claimed, his face pinched as he looked me over; "You really did feed on her, didn't you?" thankfully, they seemed to think that my scent was because of my diet and not my nature. Hmm…I'd have to remember that.

"Don't care, hungry," I grumbled, as was the usual way of George the Newborn vampire. The female rolled her eyes, probably expecting that reaction.

"Well, you'll just have to be patient. We're due back at the house, since you took so long! It's almost dawn, idiot!" she exclaimed, furious with George's actions. I resisted the urge to sneer her way, since it was petty and wouldn't do me any good since I needed a way to sneak into the midst of them without drawing attention. I had more than enough biomass saved up for the moment, especially since consuming George had pretty much super charged my body.

"Fuck you, we got time," I growled back. The female snarled, but the male held a hand out to her.

"Enough, Emma, we still got time. Let's stop arguing and hurry back. Don't want to be caught out in the sun, y'know," he stated. She nodded, relaxing again, becoming still as the dead which was natural for a vampire. We turned and dashed off, nearly flying across the roofs. But as fast as we were moving I still felt restless. My usual habits of running and jumping and gliding to my destination was much faster than even this, and despite their speed moving at a vampire's pace felt like a crawl. I couldn't imagine how fast I'd be with the crystalized body of a vampire coupled with my normal abilities. I might be too fast for me to keep up with, even.

As we made our way across the city, cutting a straight line to the outskirts, I reflected on what I knew so far of vampire biology. What I now knew of a vampire's cellular structure and what George knew about their abilities and biology didn't exactly mesh up. I can understand how the enhancements brought on by the crystallization of their cells could give them such powers, but how the hell do they expect me to believe that they'd burn under sunlight?

That was what I was really worried about. I didn't like burning, you know, since it was really one of the only ways to kill me. Being nuked had burned like a son-of-a-bitch, and it's taken me a whole year to get back in shape from what I was before the nuke nearly killed all my biomass. I didn't want to think about whether or not my biomass would burn under sunlight now that I've consumed a vampire. There had to be another explanation.

I smiled, since I had the perfect response to my curiosity. If ever in doubt, consume and adapt.

* * *

XXX

* * *

"You're late," Raoul growled, in his way of greeting. The male and female, Emma, shifted uneasily in front of me, while I pretended to ignore the whole conversation, instead glaring moodily at the other vampires in the room who were less than pleased with my attitude.

"Sorry, Raoul, but some_body_ was hungry," the girl spat, inclining her head in my direction. At that, Raoul frowned, shaking his head in displeasure.

"When ain't he hungry? He's not even a month old," Raoul stated, before pointing to the male, "You should have kept him in line!" he demanded. The male vampire that had accompanied me that I had never learned the name of merely nodded.

"Of course, Raoul, I'll make sure he follows orders the next time we hunt," the male agreed, understanding that his life would be determined by his compliance. Raoul growled, before sneering at me.

"And you!" he pointed at me, snarling, "I have half a mind to tear you up right now!" he was nearly shouting. I hissed angrily in challenge; Newborns weren't known for their subtly or their compromising personalities, everyone here expected me to lash out at Raoul if he pissed me off, which I would gladly do, all to keep the illusion, of course. "Do you have any _idea_ of the shit that I will take from Riley if he finds out?"

"Oh, Raoul, having trouble with your henchmen, are we?" the voice that spoke was female, young, but intelligent. It was unmistakable to the memories that I had stolen. Newborns flip-flopped between extreme emotions regularly, and one of the only emotions that could stop the thirst was regular old lust. And vampires, especially female vampires were all beautiful, and Kristie, one of Riley's two lieutenants was the epitome of female vampire beauty.

"Shut up, this ain't any of your damn business!" exclaimed Raoul, turning on the newcomer to this conversation. Typically, I gazed reverently in Kristie's direction, both because George's personality deemed that everyone see him make a fool of himself and because, truthfully my own personality saw the female of the vampire species as very intriguing. I really wanted to examine the female vampires in the room with me with my Infected vision to let me determine any differences between the two species, but using the vision made my sclera turn as red as my iris. It wasn't exactly subtle.

"A threat to the coven is a threat to every one of us," Kristie argued, turning her gaze to me, "I hope no one is foolish enough to try and stay outside during daylight," she sneered at Raoul then, her lips exposing her perfect white teeth that were only _too_ sharp to a vampire's acute eyesight, which I was getting to enjoy firsthand. "You should teach you underlings that, Raoul," at the provocation, Raoul snarled.

"Shut up you little—" whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a smooth voice cutting into the conversation like a white hot knife splitting a log of butter.

"Shut up, Raoul," this voice, too, was unmistakable. Gliding into the room, tall and lean and refined, Riley looked over the whole coven before settling his gaze on Raoul. "What did I say about fighting amongst us?"

"Don't," Raoul sneered. Riley nodded. Riley then looked at me, curious. He sniffed at the air, and made a face.

"What the hell happened to you, kid?" Riley pointed me out. The female vampire that had accompanied George, and therefore me as well, Emma, snickered. Seeing the looks that I was getting, the male vampire spoke up.

"He fed on a drugged woman…" hearing the explanation, Riley's puzzled expression cleared; he nodded, and turned his attention to Raoul again.

"It's almost daylight," Riley began, though I tuned him out as I began priming my biomass. This part was always so difficult. It took a lot of energy to manipulate so much of my biomass, and I usually needed to engorge myself until my biomass was restless with all the energy contained inside my fragile human disguise to do anything substantial with it, but even then it was like pulling teeth. Now, with all the energy that I had stolen from George, my biomass was practically on the edge of exploding out of me without even my conscious effort. The moment I mentally reached for my biomass, a Devastator in mind, I became a walking, talking bomb prepped for one moment of horrifically beautiful destruction. There was no stopping it once the process had begun, because I was just too far gone to control it.

One of the vampire's beside me noticed my shaking body, which was quite unusual to a vampire since they _never_ shook involuntarily. He stepped up to me, concerned.

"George, y'all alright there?" something in my expression must of gave away my intention, because his face went from concerned to horrified, but by then it was too late.

My biomass surged from me; it ripped and tore and pulled at me, desperate to release all the energy that I could barely contain within. It was like a bomb going off, though instead of shrapnel and fire large spikes of stone hard flesh pierce outward in every direction around me, skewering every vampire in the room and throughout the house with hardly any effort, tearing through granite hard flesh and bone just as easily as it did soft and plump human flesh. I screamed, the action of the Devastator tearing from my body almost a physical pain. This power, it was beyond any that I had known up till this point.

Just as quickly the uncontrollable power waned, and unconsciously I used the last of the power stolen from George to call my biomass back into my human form. Spikes receded into pale, granite hard flesh, my body rippling as my biomass became steadily more stable, and my guise slipping as I retained my usual shape. The house rumbled around me, crashing down onto my shoulders, and yet I barely noticed at all. I was hungry again, I needed to consume biomass to steal energy to use for my body, and I had used up all the energy taken from George.

Luckily, though I had grievously wounded _all_ the vampires in the house, I hadn't managed to kill any one of them. Just as well, I supposed. I needed _someone_ alive to give me the answers that I needed.

I turned, inspecting the damage of the ruined house collapsed on my victims, hunting for a specific target. I found him crumpled atop Raoul, both vampires bisected in half and most of their upper torsos torn to shreds. I pounced on the both of them, shifting my hands to claws and began consuming them with haste.

If I thought just consuming George was more than I could bear, two vampires was like trying to hold a sun between my hands. Still, somehow I retained consistency, somehow retaining my human shape as I reviewed their memories.

"Huh, that's interesting," I thought aloud, brushing back the hood of my jacket and shaking my brimming body, "So, sunlight doesn't actually burn vampires; it just makes them sparkle?" I shook my head ruefully, "Well, ain't that just a peach…"

I stood there silently in the ruins of the house, looking through my victims' memories. I didn't much feel like consuming any more vampires tonight, you see; two of them just made me feel fat and bloated. Course, I didn't necessarily need to consume any of them to kill them.

It was actually pretty easy to finish them off. I had close to a thousand minds stuffed into my cells, each mind's memories I could recall with perfect clarity as if I were the one to live their lives. So, it wasn't exactly all that surprising that some of those minds had experience with camping and starting fires with less than ideal materials and tools, and I had more than I needed, because someone had placed a few lit candles in one of the floors of the house, and the moment the house had come down the candles had caught pieces of the house on fire. After that it was easy to help it along, finding a box of matches somewhere in the wreckage and starting more fires before chucking bits and pieces of the house into it. In no time at all the whole house was aflame and all the vampires were burning.

Job done, I turned my attention to finding _her_: Victoria.

It was simple, actually. I knew from Riley's memories that she had some heightened survivalist instinct that gave her a sixth sense about avoiding danger, course I knew how to circumvent that. It was easy to call forth Riley's mind and personality, shifting my form into his. I had to submerse myself deeper into his personality, so that only the barest traces of me remained, before I made my way to the house that Victoria had claimed deeper in the woods.

She was waiting for me, of course, confused and a little scared with her eyes locked onto the smoke rising from the forest that was the unmistakable color of inky black that was the usual for vampires burning. I plastered on a terrified and horrified expression as I ran up to her.

"Victoria, Victoria, we have to go! They're here!" I shouted, recalling Victoria's references to a Coven of vampires hunting her that she had told Riley. Victoria turned wide eyes to me, before turning back to the fire raging in the forest.

"Wha—" she began to say, before I sunk the blade of my transformed arm into her chest. She looked down in shock at the sword sticking out of her heart before looking into my sneering face, shocked. "R—Riley…?"

"Sorry, luv," I smirked, letting my form shift back to my usual, "Riley's already dead," I let my biomass spread through her body from the blade in her chest. I grabbed her around the neck with my claws and brought her to the ground, tearing into her nimble, granite body and consuming her with each chunk I tore free.

* * *

XXX

* * *

A few hours, a couple of Devastators, and several human drug lords later and I were feeling more like my usual self. At least enough where I felt that I could review the memories that I had stolen from Victoria safely even amongst a densely populated area like Seattle, Washington.

I barely paid attention to her earlier years, taking note of all the important events and people that she knew of, such as the Volturi and her mate and all the powerful Covens that she had met with over the centuries, and especially to what the vampire people knew as "Talents". That, particularly intrigued me, but I pushed it aside for later. Instead, I focused on modern events, such as the death of her mate and what role the "Cullen" Coven had to do with it.

At my first encounter with vampires I had been concerned that I would need to take a vendetta to commit genocide on a new species, but the knowledge that there are actually peaceful vampires who feed on animals rather than humans came with some relief. The genocide of all the people Infected by Blacklight weighed heavily on me, after all. They were essentially my own people, and I had been forced to choose between them and humanity, and humanity's hypocrisy and brutality had been weighing heavily on my conscious ever since. To know that there are some out of this new species capable of compassion and kindness eased my worries. Perhaps there was another way?

As the early morning sunrise splashed sunlight down over my body, I mentally changed my biomass, crystalizing my cells, and watched as the sunlight glinted off my skin like a prism. I shined brightly in the light, a rainbow of colors dancing over the rooftop. Like diamonds embedded into each and every one of my cells.

It was the way of a virus to adapt and overcome all obstacles. Maybe I needed to look at my problems from a different perspective?

I smiled.

To Forks it is.

* * *

To Be Continued…

* * *

Author's Note:

This is interesting. Writing as pre-Prototype 2's Alex Mercer's mindset is pretty neat. Trying to find a balance between the antihero that Alex was in Prototype and the villain that he was in Prototype 2 is an interesting challenge. Trying to fit his powers into a conceivable way that he can fit into the Twilight universe is pretty fun to do, too.

Yeah, Alex is pretty powerful, and there are hints that he's just going to get more powerful. That's in reference to the fact that in both the Prototype games each of the "Evolved" or "Prototypes" grow with each new enemy they kill and however many which they kill. Taking that in, I figured that if he consumed a vampire, werewolf, or a Quileute wolf shape-shifter his powers would grow exceedingly. The only question is how will these powers manifest?

So, yeah, review and leave me with your thoughts on this chapter and the story in general. And if you have any questions or concerns about this story than let me know, too, kay?

Ta.

Professor Image.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Twilight Franchise or any other franchise mentioned or used within this story. The Twilight Franchise is owned by Stephenie Meyer and Little Brown, MT Books. The only things that I own are original characters, themes, and plots. This story is written with only entertainment purposes in mind, and as such I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. Please do not sue me. Thank you.

* * *

Summary: They were just myths, right? So why was he in the middle of a vampire and werewolf war?

* * *

Enjoy:

* * *

Lost in Forks

A Twilight Fanfiction by

Professor Image

Chapter III:

"Meet the Cullens

Or

A Monster Arrives"

* * *

XXX

* * *

Meet and greet — now _there_ was something that I thought I'd never be doing.

In all seriousness, though, there really wasn't a choice in the matter. I'd met so few monsters in my life, a grand total of _one_, myself, that actually wanted to do right by humanity. For me, learning that there was a whole Coven of them that held so tightly to their humanity that they would refuse their natural food source just so that they wouldn't kill humans was deeply intriguing. I knew that I _had_ to meet them, if only for some peace of mind.

Admittedly, there were two options, the Cullens and the Denali…but, the Cullens were the closest, and from Victoria's memories, the most welcoming. They were perhaps my best bet of getting through more than just the introductions without fighting.

Course, I wasn't necessarily concerned about my own health. It would probably do the whole world a lot of good if they could managed to kill me, if, being the word of choice. There was one obvious weakness shared by both the Infected and vampires; fire burned like crazy, and when the mass became merely ash then there was no more recovering. Secondly, I had another weakness that was of particular note, one that made me a little concerned about visiting Forks. While I could tread through water just like the rest of the world, the weight of all my biomass meant that I sunk harder and faster than a brick in water, and then it was a bitch trying to claw my way out of the muck. I should know, as I spent nearly a week slithering across the shallows of Manhattan to the bay just to get some damn biomass to regenerate my body. I'm lucky that a bunch of crows found the gunk that I had been reduced to delicious enough to approach; I had been at the end of my rope before they were within my reach.

Not to mention all the other times that I had to march under the surf when I accidentally miscalculated a jump and ended in the ocean. Not fun, at all.

Forks neighbored another town called Port Angeles, and reservation called La Push, and each of them shared a long strip of beach that connected to the ocean. Besides that, there were plenty of lakes and rivers, and the muddy grasslands made footholds a precarious lot. I predicted that my movements would be impeded quite a bit. I'll probably need to rethink my usual approach to getting around.

Since I didn't care to spend the next month or so marching through the mush of the ocean floor to get to Forks, I did what normal people would consider sane and rode a bus. Not one of my better choices. Though it was only a two hour drive from Seattle to Forks, being cramped up in a confined space with no real fresh air and surrounded by sacks of meat that would otherwise call their selves human was not my idea of fun. It was a strain to resist the temptation to feed, I probably would have gotten to Forks faster if I was the one driving the bus, since we had to stop a several bus stops along the way which slowed our trip down, but somehow I held myself back. The whole point of this trip was to find some guidance, right, so I figured that I could start by attempting to be civilized. And I realized something.

Being civilized _sucked_.

What's worse, the mother sitting in the seat next to me with her two kids mistook my mopey expression as a sign of depression and decided to _cheer me up_ by talking about how wonderful Forks was and encouraging me to find something to occupy my attention so I wouldn't be so sad all the time.

If only she realized that the reason I was sad was because I was resisting the temptation of eating her face. You know, I'm sure that would be a conversation killer? I'd have to try that at some point, if all this business with the vegetarian vampires doesn't work out?

It was a relief to step out of the bus an hour later; I didn't even mind the rain. It was the fresh air, of course. Being cramped was sure not the way to go when you had to mind your manners and your humanity…

"You're sure looking better, now," the mother claimed, striding up beside me and looking up at me worriedly. I was nearly two heads taller than her. I wondered how she was so easily able to hold her three year old in her arms like that.

I shrugged. "I'm claustrophobic," well, a little lie won't hurt. Obviously, the woman took my reply another way.

"Ah! I see, sorry if I was bothering you back there! You just looked so depressed, I didn't realize! If I had known…" she trailed off. I sighed, and turned around to walk off. "Where are you going?" she asked curiously, rocking the child in her arms while her other tugged at her dress.

"Away," I grumbled, abruptly dashing off to be rid of the mad woman. It was rude, but my patience was worn thin already. Besides, the woman was too damn nosy for her own good, and it wasn't like she'd see my face ever again…at least, _this_ face.

As soon as I made it into the woods I was letting the face I was wearing disappear. Riley's face was good to earn sympathy and put a distance between me and most normal people; most everyone thought that I was a young man coming home either after being rejected from a college or by a girlfriend. My usual form was much more comfortable, even despite the added strength of the vampire physiology to enhance my movements. It was the one that I was most familiar with.

To a normal vampire it wouldn't be so difficult to trace a way through Fork's forest, but to me, I was more used to sprinting full on, jumping over and over, and gliding to my destinations. I wasn't used to merely sprinting across solid ground, weaving through trees and underbrush at breakneck speeds. I was more at home in densely packed cities, the urban jungle, as they say. Even globetrotting, I still stuck close to the large cities as that was where Gentek normally set up shop.

Still, I picked up the necessary skills easily enough; I was good at adapting like that. I still found myself wishing for the familiar sights and sensations of metal, plastics and cement that were so familiar for me. In a small town as this it was too much to hope for a building bigger than four stories.

But the trees, oh the trees! I wondered as I skidded to a stop on the muddy ground, and looked up. Looming overhead, so densely packed together that they blanketed the forest in a darkness that appeared as if it were the dim hours of dawn or twilight, now, _they_ were just right. Perhaps there was another way?

Adapt and overcome.

With the mantra repeated, I leapt up onto a nearby tree, the branch so thick and solid that I had time to hop to the next one up before it even creaked under my colossal weight. I quickly scaled the tree, looking more like a spider or a grasshopper nimbly hopping from one limb of the tree to the next, until I was clinging to the strong, pliant tip of the tree and looking over the town from one way and the forest another. That's when I spotted it.

It was a big house, certainly for a small town like this, but only two stories, a snow white color with several rooms that possessed walls nearly completely built from windows. Airy, open, totally not what anyone would have in mind when they thought of vampires. In a misty town like this you wouldn't expect there to be a lot of windows in _any_ home, let alone a vampire's.

Oh, well, everyone had their quirks.

I flung myself off the tree, gliding several hundred feet until I landed softly onto a thick branch of another tree further into the forest, before launching myself up with a great pulse of my legs and glided another hundred or so feet. This process continued for some time, though I was forced to stop repeatedly to make sure that I had my positioning right. Eventually, I was holding onto the top of a tree overlooking the clearing that the house had been built in, surprised to see the whole Coven and one lone human gathered outside and looking up in the tree that I was clinging to.

Well, ain't that special.

Obviously, they knew that I had been coming for a while now, though how was up for the question. From Victoria's memories I had two obvious guesses, one of those guesses being the small girl with the pixie face, the one that was called Alice, and the other being the young boy with the reddish brown hair that was called Edward. Alice was able to see into the future, and Edward was able to read minds from a good deal of distance away. But considering that they had their "pet human" with them, I was putting my bets on Edward's ability to detect me since I doubt that they'd be stupid enough to let a human remain at their side with me so near if they knew that I was coming.

Well, in that case, it was probably best to let the man know that he should keep his guard up, since I never know when my hunger will get the best of me. Judging by how his body tensed, I think he got the message.

"What is it, Edward, what is wrong?" the human girl asked worriedly, obviously noticing the boyish vampire's reaction to my thoughts.

"Edward?" this time, the boy's name came from the blond man with the respectable face, not the one with all the scars. I got the feeling that he was the patriarch of the family judging from the way all the other's seemed to subtly differ to him from their body language.

Edward glanced up to me, scowled, shook his head, and then turned his eyes down to the human girl.

"It's…probably for the best that you didn't know, Bella," he told the girl. The girl, as indignant as a woman could be and as stubborn as a bull, she frowned, and placed a hand onto the boy's wrist.

"It's fine. It's about me, right? So then I need to know," she rationalized. Judging by the boy's expression he probably realized just as I knew it that the girl had the right to know. She'd be on her toes, too, probably even saving her life if she was wary of me. He glanced up at me in the tree and nodded once, showing that he understood.

"He's…not a vampire, but—but not a human, either," Edward frowned; his jaw tensing as if pained, and looked down at the girl again. "His thoughts are disjointed, his mind seems almost…layered, I guess is the word. I can barely make sense of his surface thoughts, but what I do understand is his emotions—and he is hungry. He's trying to warn me to protect you," he told the girl emotionally. Hearing his explanation, the girl nodded and looked up to me with a surprisingly grateful expression on her face.

"Thank you for the warning! Will you come down and join us now?" she exclaimed, her voice unnecessarily rose to shouting levels. I smirked.

Well, she's sure got balls.

The girl, Bella, registered Edward's half amused and half horrified expression, turning in surprise. "What?" It was obvious that the boyish vampire was fighting to retain his composure; something that I'm sure was a rarity in a vampire. I didn't wait for his answer, instead throwing myself from the tree and smoothly gliding down into the clearing to land in front of the whole Coven.

"Anyone ever tell you that you're too brave for your own good?" I commented dryly, patting imaginary dust off my clothing. The girl whirled towards me, surprised by my sudden and soundless appearance beside her, thought that surprise was not shared by the rest of the family as everyone but Bella and Edward had watched me glide into the clearing, and I'm sure that Edward had read the event from my mind.

Huh, creepy, that.

"It's not like I can help it, nor do I actually want to see into whatever it is that you call a brain," Edward complained tiredly, placing at hand at his temple as if to ward off a headache, "It's awfully crowded there, you know."

"Course I do," I shrugged unhelpfully, though inwardly trying to restrain the many minds in the back of my own to hopefully help the surprisingly friendly vampire. "It _is_ my own mind, after all…"

"And you are?" the female blond interrupted, irritated, obviously, but wary. I nodded, trying for politeness but her unpleasant expression made that difficult.

"Alex," I greeted.

"What did you mean when you said that he wasn't a vampire or a werewolf, Edward?" the blond man who had spoken before turned his attention to his adopted son, curious. Edward grimaced.

"Honestly, I have no idea how to explain that one," Edward sighed, and stepped up to place his arms protectively around his human mate, "His mind certainly doesn't _feel_ human, nor does it _feel_ as a vampire's does, and his thoughts are too confusing to make sense of that particular line…" he looked to me for clarification.

I smiled, looking to the blond man from before to answer the question. "The best that I can describe it; I'm a virus taking on human shape."

The man's eyes widened, though it was the stilling of his movements that told me all I needed to know. Vampires were most content when they weren't moving at all, and they had to apply conscious effort to keep their bodies moving. Getting one to stop moving meant that you had done something so mind bogging that it had halted all conscious responses that their minds were making and let their bodies return to statue-like stillness.

"Truly?" the man asked, wonder in his voice. I nodded. "Could you tell me your story?"

Elizabeth Green's mind came to the front, blocking out all others as she screamed and thrashed with her rage, demanding my attention. In reaction to her fury, Edward's right hand snapped up to hold his face, the force of it sounding like two boulders crashing together. In his remaining arm, Bella winced, clamping her hands over her ears.

"Edward!" Bella hissed.

"Sorry, Bella," Edward groaned, shaking his head almost as if he was dizzy. He locked eyes with me and asked, "What was _that_?"

"Elizabeth Green, probably what you all would call my _mother_," I explained to the best of my abilities. At the various looks of confusion on everyone's faces at the brief exchanged I sighed and continued, "Gentek, the conglomerate, harvested various strands of viruses from her body, and I was one of them. They called her Redlight, and I was Blacklight, though we were known by other names, too." I stuffed my hands into my jeans and watched the expressions flashing across my hosts' faces.

"I see," the blond patriarch, which Victoria's memories told me was named Carlisle, said. Before anything else could be said, the other blond man, the one with all the scars spoke up.

"You wouldn't happen to be Alex _Mercer_, of New York, previously an employee of Gentek and the one responsible for the Penn Station Incident, would you?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes, his body tensed with cautious expectation. From Victoria's memory's I knew that this man was named Jasper, and that the Denali Coven had claimed could control the emotions of other's just by being in their presence. I wondered why that power didn't seem to be working on me.

"To the general public, I am," I admitted, and I knew that no one liked that answer from the way that they all tensed, angry now. Even Bella seemed angry.

"You _do_ know that over two million died from the outbreak that _you_ unleashed, don't you?" Jasper snarled. Edward, though, was watching me cautiously, but seemed to be putting the pieces together.

"I do," I nodded.

"So _why_ are you _here_?" Jasper growled.

"Because the Alex Mercer that released the Blacklight virus in Penn Station and I are two different people," I stated, and glanced to Edward who was reassuringly rubbing Bella's forearms to get her to calm down.

"A change of heart does not absolve your sins," Jasper's exasperated sigh eased everyone else out of their tense stances. Everyone was still watching me carefully, but they were waiting to hear what I had to say now. They were still jumping to conclusions, though.

"No, it doesn't," Edward agreed easily, catching everyone's attention. He sighed, and placed his face into Bella's hair in an act that a lot of the minds buried in my cells agreed were to find comfort. "But the Alex Mercer in front of us really _isn't_ the same person that released the Blacklight virus at Penn Station…"

"Hold on!" the big vampire, I knew was called Emmett stopped the conversation, holding up a hand. Confused and a little backlashed, he uttered, "What?"

"You remember what I said? Elizabeth Green was known as Redlight and that I was known as Blacklight?" I stated. I could see them putting the pieces together, much as Edward had.

Surprisingly, it was Bella, the human that understood first. "Oh!" she exclaimed, shaking her head. "Oh—oh—oh!"

I grinned.

"You know," I commented, catching Edward's eye and nodding to his mate, "I think I'm starting to like this girl. She's smart, and pretty. Rare thing, that."

Unsurprisingly, Edward's arms wrapped around Bella again, not necessarily in a protective gesture as it was a possessive gesture. What _was_ surprising was Edward's tone of near reverence in his voice as he spoke.

"Bella is…special," Edward said with thick emotion, slowly brushing at the girl's thick brown hair and planting kisses on her crown. "She's…my mate." There really was no denying the love in his voice. I got the feeling that that title meant more than even I, who had the memories of a couple of vampires in my mind already, could really understand.

"Fair enough," I agreed amicably, smiling. This certainly wasn't what I expected vampires to be like…well, yeah, it kind of was. Riley's Coven had pretty much been exactly as the legends claimed, cold, bloodthirsty undead monsters. But the Cullens seemed almost…human.

"It's our diet," Edward explained, picking up on my thoughts. He looked up at me, smiling faintly, almost a friendly gesture, "Once you take out the competitive nature of the hunt, it's easy for vampires to band together and enjoy almost familial bonds, and when a vampire lives on a diet of animal blood it is easier to resist slaughtering every human that they interact with. The Denali's even have found ways to have sex with humans," he grinned.

I appreciated the boyish vampire's humor. It has been nearly a year since I've had any meaningful conversation, ever since I left Dana to recover in New York, safe from me and Blackwatch, while I globetrotted with the intent to erase Gentek. Edward's amusement was almost…infectious. I smiled as Edward snorted with the beginning of laughter at his lips.

"Edward?" Bella asked, reaching up to cup a palm to the pale and youthful vampire's face. Edward smiled fondly. He shook his head.

"Sorry," he apologized, which everyone here knew was a useless gesture since he had nothing to be sorry for, "I keep forgetting that half this conversation is silent to everyone but me and him since I'm reading his mind."

"How does that even work?" I asked, my curiosity getting to me now. I had well over two hundred scientist's poking at me to figure out how mind reading works. Even with all my powers there wasn't anything similar to that ability in my repertoire.

Edward shrugged. "No idea," he stated unhelpfully, rolling his eyes at my annoyance, "It's not like I can exactly describe it, you know. I can't really 'read' minds, nor can I 'hear' them, either. I can't even really control it. I hear just about everyone around me whether I want to or not. Everyone but Bella here," he smiled fondly down at the girl in his arms, who returned the smile with adoration on her face and the scent of arousal clinging to her body.

"Huh," I drawled, glancing to the dark haired girl, the short one with the pixie features, "And you? How can you see into the future?"

She frowned.

"Okay, _how_ do you know that?" she, like everyone but me and Edward were confused by my knowledge. I rolled my eyes and inclined my head to Edward.

"'I hunt, I kill, I consume, I become'," Edward quoted, phrasing it in a way that ringed quite well on the tongue. "He more or less…ate Victoria," in his arms, Bella tensed at the name, but Edward rubbed her arms and shoulders reassuringly which helped to calm her. "And anyone he eats, well, he gets all their memories, powers, even their physical appearance…more-or-less, he _becomes_ them…"

"Interesting," Carlisle commented, stepping towards me now, "And that is how there are two people called Alex Mercer?" he asked. I nodded.

"Exactly; I'm Blacklight. When Alex Mercer released me, most of Blacklight, most of _me_ infected a good portion of New York, but at the center of the blast I was there, fused to every cell of Alex Mercer's cooling corpse and feeding, consuming him. I _became_ him, but I'm not really him," I sighed. "Blackwatch calls me Zeus."

"After the Greek King of Gods?" it was the brown haired woman who spoke this time, the one with the motherly features and bearing who I knew was called Esme. I smiled to her pleasantly, something that Carlisle seemed to appreciate.

"Yeah," I nodded, and cocked my head back, rolling my eyes, "I don't really like it all that much, it seems a bit presumptuous, don't you think?" Esme laughed.

"Makes it seem like you have a big head," she commented dryly. I nodded.

"Exactly," I agreed.

"Perhaps we should take this inside?" Carlisle offered, and from how relaxed everyone now was I guess that they had all pretty much accepted my presence. I nodded, and then I glanced to Bella.

"Just make sure that Bella stays far away from me and we'll be good," I advised. Seeing Bella's hurt expression I sighed, and offered an explanation. "I might not be a vampire, girl, but my primary food source is still _humans_. I've just had to sit through a two and a half hour drive on a cramped bus full of humans, stubbornly resisting the temptation to feed my hunger, so my tolerance to the hunger is a little strained right now. Out here I can pretty much ignore you because the fresh air mutes your scent, takes the edge off the hunger, but inside, where it is cramped and enclosed, being close to me isn't exactly safe."

Hearing my explanation, she nodded, smiling. "I understand," she agreed, and there wasn't any hint of fear in her eyes or disgust on her face. "Thank you." Just like that, she accepted me, totally, unconditionally.

Sensing my exasperated thoughts even though I'm sure he didn't need to because I could feel my emotions clearly worn on my face, Edward laughed heartily. "Bella is one of a kind," he warned.

Adapt and Overcome, I repeated as if it could save me.

Edward's laughter rose in volume, which was quickly joined by the whole Coven as he told them what was going on inside my head.

Fuck.

* * *

To Be Continued…

* * *

Author's Note:

Yeah, this chapter is a bit different. I just suddenly realized that I've hardly ever seen Alex placed in a warmer environment where people are just generally more acceptable of him. Usually, he's placed in situations with people that are less than ideal. So we only really get to see the bad side of him. I wanted to explore the better parts of his character, the ones that we hardly got to see in the canon series. A lot of people might think of him as OOC, but I just think that it makes him more human by giving him varying sides of his personality. It isn't necessarily good, but he is trying to find some redemption and struggle along a path that his very nature disagrees with. That's kind of defining for humanity, don't you think; the struggle between nature and nurture?

Doesn't mean that Alex isn't less of a bad guy, but he's a bad guy _trying_ to be good. You know how it goes, right? Evil can be nice, and good can be twisted? Blackwatch is definitively the _good_ guys of the Prototype series, yet they commit horrendous crimes against humanity, while the Infected, typically Alex and James Heller are the bad guys but they uselessly end up unintentionally saving the day. It doesn't make Alex any less bad, and it doesn't make Blackwatch any less good, but their motivations differ and they go about trying to make their goals into a reality in differing ways.

Basically, Alex's is a man trying to find his place in a world that he is quickly growing disillusioned of. I predict that the majority of this story will be spent trying to help Alex find his faith in humanity again.

Anyways, pleased leave me a review on this story. I enjoy hearing what everyone thinks of my work.

Ta.

Professor Image.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Twilight Franchise or any other franchise mentioned or used within this story. The Twilight Franchise is owned by Stephenie Meyer and Little Brown, MT Books. The only things that I own are original characters, themes, and plots. This story is written with only entertainment purposes in mind, and as such I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. Please do not sue me. Thank you.

* * *

Summary: They were just myths, right? So why was he in the middle of a vampire and werewolf war?

* * *

Enjoy:

* * *

Lost in Forks

A Twilight Fanfiction by

Professor Image

Chapter IV:

"Nature versus Nurture

Or

How _not_ to eat the Human in the Corner"

* * *

XXX

* * *

I was having tea…with vampires.

Let me back up a bit.

Carlisle led the whole Coven, me, and Bella into the house, and I was proven correct to learn that the house was just as airy and open as I had thought it would be when I had spied it from the tree tops. The walls were splashed in bright whites and vibrant colors, and there was a distinct homeliness that a lot of the minds stored in my cells took comfort with. It was a very cozy affair, I could tell that the Cullens had gone out of their way to make the house feel like a home, all the more surprising and significant by the fact that they would likely have to give it up in another few years.

Immortality sucked, after all.

Esme beckoned us to the dining room, and went about preparing a pot of tea for us all. Course, I didn't require a drink as my own biology meant that I stayed hydrated as long as I was well fed. But, I decided to be polite even knowing how I found liquids or foods completely unappetizing. I ignored Edward's amused snort, instead arching an eyebrow at Carlisle.

Glancing to Alice, I began. "I believe that I was asking how your visions worked."

Alice's smile was thin, but not altogether unwelcoming. She glided into a seat and picked up a cup of tea with deft little fingers and spun the cup in her hands.

Right, there was the tea.

I will repeat it again: Tea…with vampires.

Again, I ignored Edward's snort of amusement.

Esme sat the rest of the tea cups in front of everyone, even the vampires. Since no one but Alice made the motion of picking up their cups, I leaned back and watched silently as Bella picked up the steaming cup and sipped quietly on the hot liquid.

"Alex?" Esme asked, wearing her worry plain as day on her face. "Do you not like tea?"

"I apologize," I nodded. Edward was the one who decided to elaborate.

"It's not in his…nature to ingest cooked foods and beverages…"Edward tried to explain. I decided to help, leaning forwards and locking eyes with the matronly vampire.

"My biology means that I can only find sustenance from living matter," I began. I leaned back and brushed my hood down from my face. "Foods like sodas and synthetic drinks and meals are difficult for me to purge from my body," I tapped the cup of tea with one long finger, arching my brow. "Tea and water isn't so difficult to process and expel from my biomass as long as I don't take excessive amounts of it within my body."

"So," Carlisle said, the scientific curiosity obviously eating away at him. "Your diet is similar to a vampire's?" he questioned, looking to me for an answer. I nodded.

"There are…similarities, yes," I agreed readily, folding my arms over my chest and adopting a thoughtful expression. "I suppose the main difference is that I consume more than just the blood. Every part of the body, from the brains to even the wastes is absorbed and processed by me," I shrugged.

I looked to Alice now, smiling invitingly, "Well, are you going to start?"

Alice smiled, glanced to the blond man standing next to her, as if to protect her from all dangers, before looking back to me with obvious amusement on her face.

"I suppose that Edward's talent is a good reference point to describe my own talent, though there are clear differences that define our unique powers," she glanced to Edward, than back to me, and pursed her lips as if trying to form a good explanation to satisfy my curiosity. "I guess you can say that I _do_ see the future, but that doesn't really do the ability any justice. It's more than just sighing ephemeral images pulled from a vague future, I also get the smells, the sounds, the textures. It's a full sensory immersion, not just purely local to sight." She explained. I nodded my understanding.

"And…is it as impossible for you to control it as your brother?" I asked. Edward and Alice shared a look, which was broken when Edward nodded his support. Alice smiled and shook her head.

"I have…some control, not much, of course. The visions will still come on their own whether I like it or not, but if I try I can force myself to see into the future, to activate my 'talent', you see?" she tried to get me to understand. I nodded, showing that I was following along well enough for now.

"It's kind of ridiculous, I'll admit," I claimed, shaking my head incredulously. "There isn't any scientific basis to support the idea that someone can see the future. Hell, there's barely any basis for someone capable of reading another person's thoughts or someone controlling another person's emotions…" I explained my hesitance. They all nodded, pleased by my general acceptance of their abilities and lifestyles so far but understanding my confusion.

"You are familiar with the sciences, than," Carlisle questioned. I smiled ruefully. I'm sure he wouldn't be comfortable to learn _how_ I was so well acquainted with the sciences. From beside me Edward shook his head, so I nodded my agreement.

"Among other things," I claimed. Carlisle seemed to catch onto the unspoken conversation between me and Edward, and chose to ignore it all the same, obviously sensing that it wouldn't be something that he would agree with. I smiled my thanks.

"So…we've seen some hint of it already," Bella began, smiling at me and perfectly content to be holding a civil conversation with a monster whose only thought was how quickly he could reach her and consume her before anyone reacted. I braced myself against the thought, not appreciating it. Edward frowned his warning, but didn't react otherwise, sensing how much I hated looking at Bella as if she were food. Sense we both were predators who saw the girl as our main source of food, I found that I could appreciate what the boyish vampire must have gone through just to have a relationship as close as he did with the girl. I couldn't even begin to understand how horrible the experience must have been to resist feeding on the girl, nor could I begin to fathom the depths of the feelings he must have had for her to give him the strength to resist. Even with the original Alex's sister, Dana, I had to fight the beast inside me just to keep from attacking her when in her presence, and I loved her dearly, like a sister. Edward's patience and tolerance was somewhat humbling.

"It…gets easier the more time that you spend around them," he claimed, shrugging, and ignoring the way everyone was following along with the one-sided conversation. "If I feed on animals regularly it helps to keep the human in control, to keep the beast locked away. It keeps me strong to resist the temptation, but, it isn't very satisfying, truthfully."

"Like tofu?" I guessed. He nodded. "Huh."

"Edward?" Bella asked, placing a hand on her beau's face. Edward breathed deeply, a sigh brushing the girl's fingers. "Are you talking about your diets?" she asked. Edward nodded.

"Yes," he smiled, brushing long white fingers through the girl's brown curls, smoothing her thick hair away from her face before placing his lips to the girl's brow. "We were discussing the functionality of a vegetarian diet."

"So…I take it you are interested in learning about our way of life?" Carlisle asked, picking up the conversation. I shrugged.

"It's…hard for me," I began. It was difficult describing _why_, though. Edward sensed my hesitation, and picked up the conversation for me.

"His natural diet is to feed on humans," Edward explained patiently, maintaining a relaxed composure despite the seriousness of his expression. "Eating, consuming humans as has been explained increases his strength and feeds his hunger, but it also burdens him with the memories of his victims…it's, painful, in a way that even I couldn't begin to understand despite the fact that it would be similar to the way I would feed on a human if I were to choose to do so…" from the horrified expressions on the faces of all the vampires in the Cullen Coven, I figured that they understood what Edward meant.

Still, I found my voice interrupting the strained quiet, burdened with emotional pain.

"No one is the bad guy in their own world; everyone has a reason for acting the way they do, for committing their crimes. Even feeding off the vilest, twisted humans that I can find, I still feel pained by their passing because there is no one who knows my victims more than I…" I explained, wishing to hell I didn't need to. There were a lot of bad memories stored in my biomass, all of it from the victims that I had consumed in the year or so since my creation.

"That's horrible!" Carlisle exclaimed, appalled at the idea of a person burdened with the sins of nearly a thousand men, or was it more that he was sick with the idea that I would steal _everything_ from my victims? "How are you still sane?" he questioned, looking to me with worry plainly worn on his face.

I laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound; it sounded hollow to even my ears.

"Carlisle, please, enough," I could feel Edward's eyes on me, knew that he was reading the depths of my despair and disgust with his freaky mind reading mumbo jumbo. I wanted to strike him, to get him to stop, but I was suddenly so tired that all I could do was shut my eyes and quiet the wailing of the sea of souls that were buried deep in my DNA.

"Can you help, Jasper?" Edward asked meaningfully. Jasper grunted.

"Can't," the scarred vampire stated, sighing, "His biology is wrong. I can't manipulate his chemistry to change his emotions." On some level I understood what was going on, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"I need air," I claimed, standing and dashing to the door. They didn't stop me, though I could feel each of their worried gazes on my shoulders as I opened the doors and stepped outside.

The raining had picked back up again. In the distance I heard the crash of thunder. I took a breath of the fresh air and allowed my body to relax.

Carlisle appeared by my side, careful, but pleasant. He was strangely accepting of me, despite knowing just how horrible a monster I could be.

"I apologize," he began, sighing. His body was still, watchful, almost like a statue if it weren't for how his body moved as he took breaths of air. "I sometimes forget just how harsh the world can be outside my little Coven. We have so few interactions with other Covens, and you are the first of your kind that we have ever met. I did not think about your own feelings."

"S'okay," I denied, turning to him and sighing. I leaned heavily against the doorframe, turning my head back to watch the pouring rain and the swaying trees. "I don't exactly have the most ideal history," I offered. Carlisle agreed quietly with my assessment.

"I wanted to tell you that this doesn't change anything," Carlisle told me, surprising me at his sincerity. "You aren't our first guest who has fed and continues to feed on humans. Whether you agree with our diet is irrelevant. It doesn't change the fact that I and my family wants to call you our friend."

Huh.

"It ain't easy, being what I am," I agreed readily, moving from the doorframe to stand beside the tall and handsome vampire. "I've tried to live off animals…it's not so bad. Doesn't taste as good as humans, but at least I don't get any unwanted memories from the exchange. Problem is that farmers don't like poachers, and livestock going missing sets off alarms. Humans are easier to come by, so they are my usual source of food." I explained. Carlisle showed his understanding with a smile and an agreeable hum.

"I take it that you need to eat more frequently than we do?" he asked. I briefly reviewed Victoria's memories and figured that he was right.

"Seems that way," I agreed, sighing. "Though I've never tried to go longer than a week without eating…as long as I don't do anything strenuous I can make a full grown human male last for about a week, but since I'm always active, always fighting, well…" I trailed off. Carlisle nodded his understanding.

"You burn off all the energy that you gained from eating, right?" he asked. I agreed.

"Yeah…"

"But the taste isn't too terrible, right?" Carlisle pried, curious like I was to learn the differences between our two species. "Vampires find most animals unpleasing to the taste, though the carnivores taste better than the herbivores. Does that make any difference to the taste?" he wondered aloud.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I've only ever hunted in urban zones, large cities where livestock and wildlife is rare. The biggest animals that I've ever managed to consume were cows, and that was when I was skirting close to the more rural areas of the Americas," I elaborated.

"There's no telling how a vegetarian diet would work for you," he agreed amicably, nodding along with my explanation. "However, we usually hunt wild predators, the carnivores, who taste better to our palate. If you are anything like us, you might find the local wildlife of Forks more to your liking than those that you've consumed so far. There might even be a chance that a predator could sustain you longer than the prey, closer to a human, actually."

"That would be nice," I agreed. It seemed too good to be true that the answers to my problems were so close. I really wanted to be able to walk amongst the humans, to interact with them and not think of them as meat, but living people. Every human death was tearing away at my sanity little by little. I feared what I would become when I finally broke.

"You said that you haven't eaten today, am I correct?" Carlisle asked.

"Yeah, wasn't much time between the bus and running here to consume something, and my last meal left a bad taste in my mouth," I explained. Seeing Carlisle's curiosity I decided to elaborate. "Drug lords, hypes, pimps, gangsters, and the lowest of the low." Understanding crossed Carlisle's features then, he nodded.

"Well, how about hunting with us, getting to try our particular diet?" he offered. I thought about it briefly, but I was curious.

"Send the girl home and I will," I didn't want Bella around me when I was hunting. Carlisle smiled kindly.

"Of course, it is much too dangerous for a human to be around us when we're hunting," Carlisle agreed. I followed him into the house to find that most of the Coven had meandered off, and was doing god knows what, but that Edward, Bella, and Esme were loitering around, obviously listening into our conversation but too polite to mention it.

"We'll be hunting, soon," Carlisle told the three, then looked immediately at Bella with intent, saying, "_You_ will need to go home, unless Alice agrees to keep you company."

"Of course, Carlisle," Alice agreed, gliding into the room so fast that she'd probably be a blur to human eyes. "It's never a trouble, Bella," Alice smiled kindly in the human's direction. Bella's skin pinked, her blush lighting up the room, before she turned to lightly place a kiss to Edward's cheek.

"Edward will be going with you?" Bella asked Carlisle, confused. Carlisle nodded.

"Yes…his, ahem, talent will be useful to help us understand Alex. I'm sure you understand just how careful Alex is around us," he glanced to me for clarification, and I nodded. On a lesser scale, even vampires appealed to my senses, though Bella was far more attractive to me than the Coven of vampires who were going to teach me about their diet, because honestly vampires smiled like dead biomass, even if I could consume them all the same just like a human.

"That's good to know," Edward agreed, inclining his head to me, "Humans appeal to his taste more than vampires."

Everyone understood. Good.

Alice took Bella to her room, and I could hear the two talking loudly as they headed up the stairs. I turned my attention to Carlisle, Esme, and Edward and arched both my eyebrows.

"Girl's sure got balls," I declared, making Carlisle and Esme chuckle while Edward fought to contain his composure.

"We'll need to hurry, of course," Carlisle claimed, sweeping out of the room. I followed, accompanied by Esme and Edward, the four of us speeding through trees and underbrush at breakneck speeds. Carlisle stopped, turning back to us as we set down around him, waiting. "It's still daylight, so we're more exposed while we hunt than normal. We need to be cautious not to be seen."

"I hear that," I agreed. If Blackwatch caught wind of my presence in Forks I didn't want to think what they would possibly do to this little town. I needed to get onto putting them out of my misery for good, I guess.

"That would be lovely," Edward sighed, agreeing with my reasoning. He, like I, didn't want to see what Blackwatch would do to Bella for socializing with vampires and I. I got the impression that he would gladly commit genocide for the girl.

"I would," he agreed. Huh. My respect for the vampire just keeps continuing to grow. Edward smiled. "Thanks."

"Welcome," I replied.

"We should hurry," Carlisle claimed, and we took off again.

We set down on a tree branch overlooking a grove where a few deer bounced around, looking for nuts and berries and nibbling at most of the vegetation. Like most of the animals that I came across, their scents weren't that appetizing, but wasn't as bad as Carlisle and his coven made them out to be judging from the expressions of disgust on their faces.

"Herbivores," Esme explained, nodding into the grove. "Basically, they taste like lettuce: plain, tasteless, and bland. It's best to hang around the cliffs because that's where all the carnivores hover."

"Let's move on," Edward urged. I agreed, and we took off again, making our way to the mountain ranges nearby. It wasn't long until we came upon our first predator, a large black bear that actually smelt somewhat pleasant. "Yes, just as we said. Carnivores just generally smell and taste better, more like a human…"

"So…how should I?" I motioned to the bear. The three vampires smiled kindly at my hesitance.

"Just do what you normally do. We're not sure how your biology works, so whatever you need to do to feed the hunger than just go with it." Carlisle advised. I nodded.

"Fine, but it's kind of disgusting." I warned. They nodded.

"We understand. Now please, try," Esme urged me forwards. I sighed, and threw myself down to the forest floor, and stalked forwards.

The bear noticed me, of course, and its instinct to confront other predators invading its territory made it rise up to its haunches and roar defiantly. I sneered, letting my nature guide me, and felt my arms shifting into my familiar claws. The bear met my charge head on, its paws coming heavily down upon my shoulders and digging its long claws into my skin, tearing through my biomass. It exclaimed its rage in my face, biting down at my neck, but my own hands were moving up, grabbing at the beast's forelegs and clenching my claws tight on its flesh, piercing its skin. It shouted its pain and fury, gnashing at my face. I threw my foot into its abdomen, crumpling the creature, before shoving my hands into its chest and lifting it over my head, screaming.

I felt my biomass rippling along my arms, large tendrils of it shooting from the skin of my forearms, looking like veins bulging out of my body, bursting under the pressure. The tendrils sunk into the animal's flesh, weaving through its veins and feeding its hunger. I felt most of my strength returning, felt familiar energy filling my body. Though I couldn't attribute the sensation of taste to any process in my consuming of the animal, there was a similar sensation to the human sense that I enjoyed when feeding on humans, animals, and vampires. This sensation of 'taste' fed me new sensory input as I consumed the bear. Like the Cullens described, the bear, a natural predator which fed on other animals, was more similar to humans then what I was used to. It was almost…pleasant in a way. Not quite meat, but close enough to take care of my hunger.

Actually, comparing it to tofu was actually a very apt description.

A couple of minutes later, Edward and I were lounging on a tree while we absently watched Esme and Carlisle feed on a moose. The way that they were gravitating around each other, casually touching each other as they fed was almost sensual. From beside me Edward made a face.

"Your commentary is not appreciated," he groaned. I chuckled.

"Sex is a part of nature. I suppose it isn't too surprising that vampires can have sex," I mused, scratching at my chin thoughtfully. Edward sighed, holding his head in his hands.

"Ugh, the imagery!" he bemoaned. I snickered.

Edward was the one who broke the companionable silence between us, asking, "So, it looks like your biology is similar enough to our own that our diet isn't _completely_ pointless," said the boyish vampire with obvious hope in his voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, because consuming a bear make everything better," I drawled, shaking my head. "Now all I have to do is stick to the more rural areas with all the big game so that I can keep up a healthy diet."

Edward shrugged unhelpfully. "It's a start, at least."

"True, that," I agreed.

* * *

To Be Continued…

* * *

Author's Note:

This was one of those chapters that got away from me, again. I was just having so much fun writing the Cullen's, Bella's, and Alex's interactions that I kinda lost track of the main plot of this chapter. This is going to get old pretty fast if I can't get through the initial interactions between Alex and the Cullens. I'm spending way too much time on how Alex expresses every little deviation of his personality around the Cullens.

I should probably mention it, but I absolutely HATE Edward and Bella. That being said, I don't like bashing fics, so I try to depict them similarly to the way that the original author depicts them. Of course, for works of fiction like the Harry Potter series, bashing certain characters goes hand in hand with the canon story because they are some of the most unlikable characters ever imagined. For instance: Ron Weasley.

I'm still iffy on the pairing. On one hand, there's a readymade reason to begin the romance between Leah and Alex, in the form of imprinting, and on the other hand I just enjoy Alice's character so much that I don't think that I would mind writing a novel to develop her feelings for Alex and put a wedge between her and Jasper. It's kind of in the air right now. I'm even interested in possibly multi-shipping Alex with Alice and Leah, but I'm against that course since I don't like writing or reading multi-ship and harem stories. I just don't agree with those principles, really.

I might post a poll on my profile in a few chapters once I'm sure that there are enough people reading this story. Depending on whom wins could determine the final, official pairing. But that's neither here or there.

Anyways, drop a review and leave me with your thoughts. I always want to hear what people think of my work.

Ta.

Professor Image.


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